And the Princess of Friendship grasped Tirek and removed him from Equestria.[1]

[1] The way this is phrased, you’d think this is when I murdered Tirek. This would be incorrect. This is when I teleported both of us to the moon and accelerated the celestial bodies to build up the momentum required to murder him.

And then she descended from the sky in a bolt of fire.[2]

[2] Understatement of the millennium. I penetrated the atmosphere with him at a significant percentage of the speed of light, and he vaporized. I’d say before we hit the ground, but I hit it within 1/10 of a second of initial atmosphere impact so trace particles of him might have made landfall. I don’t know. I estimate I lost consciousness somewhere in the magnetosphere when the fission reactions picked up speed.

She then rested twelve moons and awoke.[3]

[3] I honestly didn’t expect to survive plummeting through the sky at a speed close enough to c that I risked violating the laws of physics. In fact, I didn’t plan on surviving murdering Tirek. I wasn’t sure I could live with that burden. I mean, who could live with the weight of knowingly snuffing the life of another living being? I was devastated when Princess Luna popped by six months into my coma and informed me I was still alive.

On the dawn of the first day of the thirteenth cycle, Princess Radiant Dawn was born to the Princess of Love.[4]

[4] This is part of why I didn’t want to live after murdering Tirek. I didn’t want to have to tell my descendants that I was a murderer. Who knows if he might have eventually reformed? I unfairly robbed him of that chance. The fact that I got off scot-free just because he was a threat to Equestria did little to ease my conscience.

And on the day the Princess of Friendship awoke, you shall light a candle to honor those who fell under Tirek.[5]

[5] The only one who died that day was Tirek, according to official records. Because I murdered him. At the time I thought he had left me no choice. He had taken all of Equestria’s magic and taken all of my friends hostage after my attempts to nonlethally subdue him had failed. The other Princesses had given me their power, and I snapped under the pressure. I sunk to his level and put him down like one of Fluttershy’s animals.

The candle was my idea to be able to openly grieve for losing a part of myself after murdering Tirek, to enable Equestria to cry with me. It was the only way I could retain my sanity and try to piece together my moral compass again after committing an unforgivable crime.

On that day you shall prepare a great feast for your family.[6]

[6] In my years of experience, food has excellent palliative properties. I know it always helps me get through tough times. Maybe that’s why Nightmare Night turned into what it is today. I know I don’t mind an excuse to drown the horrible pit in my stomach with enough cake to feed a small town.

That will be the day you remember Equestria lived.[7]

[7] When it comes down to brass tacks, I realize intellectually that I did the right thing. I dispatched the greatest threat the world had ever faced. Technically, I’m the most decorated hero that the world has ever known. I should be grateful for ensuring the planet’s survival.

I’m just of two minds about it. Did I really have to murder him? Was there another way? Perhaps whatever was in that box the Tree of Harmony produced may have helped, but we’ll never know now. I made my bed and have to lie in it.

In the end, perhaps Equestria’s safety and survival was worth sacrificing my personal values for half a second.

And this holiday continually serves as a personal reminder to always look for another way when faced with an impossible choice, to keep searching for the option that I won’t regret for the rest of my life. If I was able to go back in time and redo it, I wouldn’t have made the same decision. Then again, I can’t.

Twilight rested the pen next to her journal and sighed, tears trickling out of her eyes and matting her muzzle. She let herself sob for a few more minutes, then closed her journal and smiled.

I can check that off my list for this year. Now I have my niece’s birthday party to attend.

And this holiday continually serves as a personal reminder to always look for another way when faced with an impossible choice, to continually keep searching for the option that I won't regret for the rest of my life. If I was able to go back in time and redo it, I wouldn't have made the same decision. Then again, I can't.

I'M SO GLAD I GOT AROUND TO READING THIS. Barely been a week, but still. This is a rather enjoyable, yet dark take on the battle between Twilight and Tirek. This is the path that Twilight took instead of the other, because she (mostly) knew what was going to happen if she went down this road. The other road was mysterious and had no real solution that she could rely on.

I just find it interesting that Twilight is in this kind of moral dilemma. She did something that most humans would do without a second thought. A threat to friends and family, like someone breaking into a house with a knife, would motivate a person to defend themselves and those close to them, with lethal force if need be. In a situation as extreme as that, in defence against someone who means you and your's harm, I think being willing to drop the civilized facade is something to be commended in a way.

Keep in mind, I'm not condoning murder. Killing someone when they do not pose any sort of serious threat is not okay, and is lawfully recognized as murder. What I'm referring to is life or death situations, where trying to find a different way would involve too much of a risk.

(aside from doing a decent job of imitating the tone and style of Jewish scripture, something that I didn't see as clearly first time around.)

(Now if you were like Tolkien, you'd invent Written Equestrian for us and write the original verse as well as the vernacular )

You make it clear while Twilight is hard on herself and that this haunts her for the rest of her life, nonetheless that she accepts the necessity of self defense.

Given you were framing the story in an ersatz Jewish motif it is wonderfully congruent with a passage in (I think) Talmud. Where they spell it out "If you are absolutely sure someone is going to come to kill you, it is a commandment upon you to do your best to kill them first."

(And there is writing elsewhere in Talmud that touches upon survivor's guilt. And in another place, the idea that if you are being coerced into killing someone by a third party, your response should be "Is my blood redder than theirs?" (and you refuse to do it, even if the coercing party kills you as a result). It feels to me this is precisely the sentiment Twilight is overcome by in the story.)

EDIT: That is, she wasn't being coerced by a third party, but she can't help feeling as though that level of moral stringency nearly applies to her. END EDIT

(It is worth noting that Talmud has a very low opinion of the death penalty. And a very low opinion of anyone lying or even being negligently mistaken regarding evidence critical to a guilty verdict. To the point that the actual execution has to be performed by the witnesses who testified as to the data that the decision to convict hinged on. The idea was if an innocent person had just died, they trusted their deity would curse the false/negligent witnesses. Sparing the court and community who had tried their best to get to the truth.)

(So this commandment was derived only in the expectation of the utmost stringency in assessing "they're going to kill me" in practice.)

(Noting all that because otherwise, the "Kill them first" sounds bloodier minded and harsher than it was understood to be at the time.)

Kudos for working in religious subtext without bludgeoning the reader over the head with it